An Unexpected Couple
by IkaDeidaraClayGirl
Summary: TenTen loves someone, even though he has constantly hurt her. When he hurts her most, she realizes that she doesn't need him and finds another. [AN:I suck at writing summaries of my own stories. Better than this summary sounds.] Disclaimer: Don't own it.
1. TenTen's Problems

Chapter 1

TenTen looked up at the stars. They were so familiar. Even though today's training session with Lee and Gai had left her depressed, the stars calmed her and lightened her mood. Thinking about Lee and Gai made her sigh. Why was it that two...well..._freaks_ like them could find someone to live for, but she couldn't? She sighed again. The stars' effect was wearing off, and she had become more despondent. Looking around her to make sure nobody was near the bench she sat on, she put her head in her hands. After a while, she took one of her hands off her face and slowly let down the buns in her hair, letting it flow down her shoulders. Her thoughts turned to Neji.

Neji.

Why didn't he realize that she loved him? Why didn't he see the glow in her eyes as she spoke to him, feel the way she felt, realize that there was more to life than fighting? She buried her face further into her hands and began to sob. Her worries and fears, her dreams and desires, her love for Neji, all came to the surface of her thoughts. She sat there, weeping, for a long time.

Eventually, she stopped. She sensed another shinobi's presence near her, and she wanted to get away. Far away. Before anyone could see her, the stone wall of TenTen, break down. She abruptly stood up, gathering the weapons and miscellaneous other things she had laid beside her on the bench, tears still running down her face.

"TenTen." A voice spoke behind her. TenTen spun around to see a shadowed face, dark glasses, and a high collar.

"Shino?" she asked. "What are you doing here?" Her bewildered expression turned to one of anger as he replied.

"I can see you've been crying. Do you need any help?" This was the last thing she would possibly want him to say. She hated it when people saw her crying.

"I'm fine!" she snapped, turning around to walk away. She barely knew him, anyway, so why should he care that she had been crying? His next words stopped her short.

"Your hair is beautiful when you let it down." With that, he turned and walked off, leaving TenTen frozen where she was. If he had still been facing her, she would have seen a blush creep over his face.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next morning, a thick mist was dissipating over the training ground where TenTen and Neji were training. Lee and Gai had gone off somewhere. Neji didn't quite know where. All he knew was that they had promised to come back by the middle of the day. He looked up from the tree stump he had been shredding with his Jyuuken. The sun was setting. Lee and Gai still weren't - his thought was broken off by a shuriken sailing into the stump he had recently been attacking.

He looked in surprise at TenTen. She was facing a tree with a red X on it, her head down. In a wide circle around the tree, TenTen's weapons were scattered. This concerned him. Normally, TenTen would've been able to hit the target with one weapon, then split that weapon in half with another thrown just as precisely as the first. Today, every single weapon had missed, and by a long shot. He looked up at TenTen's face, only to be met with a look of defeat. This completely startled the Hyuuga.

_Something is definitely wrong here_, he thought. Then something clicked in his head. It all added up. She had been acting strangely all day. First, she had come to training with her hair down. Ever since Neji had known TenTen, she had worn it in buns. Then, she hadn't reacted at all when Gai and Lee had started kissing and ran off somewhere, all the while talking about that "springtime of youth" crap. And now, every single weapon had missed its mark and TenTen looked defeated. Defeated by a _tree._

Neji walked over to her and asked "Is there something wrong?" She ignored his question and walked away. Neji stared after her in complete and utter amazement. This was definitely not like TenTen. He ran after her and caught up.

"TenTen, answer me!" There was no response. He kept pestering her for a while. Suddenly, she turned to face him.

She stared into his eyes, and asked him "Neji, what do you think of me?" Her voice was low, unlike her usual high-pitched, annoying chatter. Neji was unsure how to answer this seemingly random question. He decided to compliment her and see where that led.

"I think you'll become a great ninja if you keep working hard" he said awkwardly. The look in her eyes pierced him to the heart.

"You know what I really mean" TenTen said bitterly, as if she had already guessed what his answer was going to be. Neji didn't actually know what she meant. He guessed.

"TenTen, I think you are worthy of my respect and I consider you a friend."

"You're avoiding the question!" she yelled, tears barely held back. _Wow, she has a short temper_, Neji thought. He cursed under his breath.

"Neji!" TenTen continued, sounding sad and furious at the same time, "I love you!" Her voice got softer, more fragile. "Do you think you could possibly love me?"

_Oh no._ thought Neji. _This is not good._ For he knew he didn't love her. He could never truly love anybody, no matter how hard he tried. He also didn't know how to answer the question. _Best to make it as simple as you can._ He decided upon a one-word answer.

"No." TenTen looked up at him with anguish in her eyes, as if she expected him to add to or take back his words, as if she loved him more than he could possibly understand.

Neji's eyes met TenTen's, only for a fleeting moment. TenTen turned and began to run. Fast. Her hair still down, bouncing on her shoulders. Tears running down her face. Neji watched her run, feeling truly horrible. He should've found something kinder to say. Especially since there had been something troubling her earlier.

"Byakugan!" Neji activated his Clan's bloodline limit in the hope of finding TenTen and watching her, to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. His heart skipped a beat as his eyes found her and he realized where she was headed. He began to run after her, knowing that he would blame himself forever if she threw herself off the cliff.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TenTen kept running. Her thoughts were miserable and heartbroken. _He didn't love her!_ He didn't even care enough about her to explain, to tell her why, to try to remain friends. And now, as she was running, she realized that he had lied to her about some things.

He didn't respect her. He didn't consider her a friend. What kind of friend would be that cold? What kind of friend would hurt her that way?

As she neared the cliff, her thoughts turned to her impending death. It was as tall as a thousand kunai strung end-to-end, and TenTen knew that no human could be expected to survive that fall. She braced herself to lose everything she had known, just to relieve her pain, and to make one person responsible for her death. Neji would be sorry he had wounded her. She was close enough to the cliff to see over it. At the very edge, she stopped her flight. Memories rushed through her head. An entire life full of memories. Then, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she stepped forward...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ika: Well, that was interesting: ) I love cliffhangers! (And no, that was not meant as a pun, but I guess you could take it that way...)

New chapter soon: )

Please review...and constructive criticism only, please!


	2. And the Solution

Chapter 2

Shino had been walking, thinking to himself, when TenTen had suddenly raced past him. He had run after her, but there was no way he could match the weapon master's amazing speed. As the forest they were running through gradually cleared, Shino could see the edge of a cliff ahead. He gasped as he realized where they must be. He forced his legs to run faster.

"TenTen!" he called. She appeared not to hear him. As he continued to run toward her, she stepped off the cliff.

Shino cursed and ran even faster than he was before. When he got to the cliff, he continued at the same speed, using his chakra to run down the cliff face. He was catching up to the falling TenTen! Finally, he got to her. He grabbed her in his arms and barely managed to hang onto the cliff.

TenTen's eyes opened. "Shino? What did you do that for?" Shino didn't answer her. With her still in his arms, he climbed the rest of the way down the cliff.

When they finally got to the bottom, TenTen said, "Shino. Please don't stop me again." Shino was struck by how low her voice was, by how full of pain it sounded. And yet it was clear and determined.

"TenTen! Don't do this." Shino said, agonized. "Please."

TenTen looked at him wearily. "Why not? If you knew what I've been through, maybe you could sympathize with me."

"Oh, TenTen, I do sympathize with you. But just think. Think about all the people who will be hurt, everyone who is your friend. Think about your reasons for doing this." Shino was getting truly desperate now.

TenTen looked at the ground. "Well...I guess my reasons were...everything in my life that's gone wrong piled up, and then Neji just set the pile on fire."

Shino understood what she meant. "What did Neji do?"

She looked at him. "Can we move somewhere else? What I have to say is something I have never told anybody before, and I don't want anyone else to hear it."

"Of course." Shino led the way to a spot that he knew nobody else in Konoha knew about. It was high in a tree in the forest, with a large branch big enough for two and hidden enough that nobody could see or hear them. When they arrived, he climbed the tree and sat in it. She hesitated, but did the same.

"Okay" she said, taking a deep breath. "Let's start from the beginning." Shino knew that he shouldn't interrupt her, even though he knew it would be dark soon. He listened.

"Two years ago, when I was 13, both my parents died. I was by then old enough to live on my own, so I didn't tell anyone. I kept it a secret, and bore the weight of it, because I didn't want anyone's pity. I didn't want anyone to single me out. All I wanted was to be normal, and to become a true ninja. But then, things started to get worse. My missions failed. My teammates got ahead of me. Every time I fought someone, I lost. People were making fun of me and calling me weak. And my sensei was so obsessed with Lee that he never taught me anything. Everyone got into the mindset that I was worthless, just because I specialized in weapons. I just couldn't convince people that I was worth something, and they continued to think badly of me." She paused. Shino noticed tears in her eyes, and saw her gathering the strength to continue.

"And finally, what pushed me to the edge was Neji. Ever since our Academy days, I have had a crush on him. I have been by his side in many missions and battles. I looked forward to seeing him every day. And throughout our years as a team my love for him grew. Finally, today as we were training, I asked him what he thought of me. He avoided my question, saying things about friendship and respect. When I asked him outright, 'Do you love me?' he simply said 'No'. Just 'No'. No explanation, no 'I'm sorry', nothing. Just 'No'. If he really thought of me as his friend, if he really respected me, he would have said something nicer. When he talked to me like that, I knew that all he said about our friendship was complete bull. And soon, it hit me. All those days I looked forward to seeing him, all those nights spent awake thinking about him, all of those were just me chasing an impossible dream." TenTen was sobbing, so that Shino could barely comprehend her words. "And all this time I thought he might feel something for me!"

Shino was shocked. How could Neji be so horrible? He moved closer to TenTen and offered her his shoulder to lean on.

"TenTen, I'm so sorry. I don't know how Neji could be so mean to someone who obviously cares about him." Shino tried to comfort TenTen as she sobbed into his shoulder. He was about to ask her if he should talk to Neji for her, when Gai and Lee showed up.

"Dynamic Entry!" the two men clad in green spandex yelled at the same time. Shino shot them a poisonous glare. Then he remembered that they wouldn't see it; he was still wearing his glasses.

Gai, seeing TenTen crying, walked over to her and said, "Come, TenTen! Tell me what is wrong! I am sure I can help you with my youthful power!" He gave his stunningly gay smile. Then, Neji arrived.

"Actually, I want to speak to TenTen" said Neji.

"You're not going to." Shino growled. "I need a word with you." Neji looked confused, but went with Shino to another branch of the tree.

Meanwhile, TenTen was talking to Gai. "I don't think you can help me. You wouldn't understand."

"Of course I can help you! Whenever you need help, you can talk to me!" Gai smiled again.

"But you've never helped me before." TenTen's voice was getting dangerously angry. "Whenever I've asked for help, you've just said 'Figure it out' and gone off to train Lee!"

As TenTen and Gai's argument escalated, Shino and Neji were getting mad at each other.

"I told you, Shino! I do care about her as a friend, but I don't love her! She is not the right person for me!" Neji said, exasperated.

"That still doesn't mean you can treat her like dirt! She's the kind of person you have to give a reason to! You never gave her a reason for her refusal! You don't care how she feels! You just enjoy having her to taunt and win fights against!" Shino was yelling, which is quite uncharacteristic of him.

"And you know this _how_? You don't really know her! I've known her well for years! She'll get over it!"

"She was going to commit suicide! Does that sound like 'getting over it' to you? And you did nothing to prevent her from killing herself!"

"When I realized she was heading for the cliff, I ran after her! If I'd been able to stop her, she would've gotten over it and moved on!"

Shino sighed. "Look, the point isn't whether or not you tried to stop her. It's that you should be nicer to her. And you should apologize." Shino didn't tell Neji what TenTen had told him about her past. He knew she would want it to be kept a secret.

"Fine." Neji turned his head. At this point TenTen came over, having obviously won her argument with the support of a few kunai. Completely ignoring Neji, she walked past Shino, waving.

"I've got to go. See you around!" she called to him. Though she _looked_ perfectly happy, Shino knew that happiness would be impossible for the weapon mistress, especially immediately after a suicide attempt. He couldn't be sure exactly how TenTen was feeling, however, because she was, like a good shinobi, doing a great job of hiding her emotions.

"What, TenTen? Leaving so soon? Aren't you going to train?" asked Gai.

"Hell no. I've been training all day. Now leave me alone." TenTen responded.

"But...but that isn't youthful!" yelled Lee. TenTen ignored him and continued walking. Shino watched as she walked away, slowly melting into the darkness.


	3. The Mission

Ika: Sorry about the long chapter...but oh well... : ) Enjoy!

Disclaimer (I forgot to do this last chapter): I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 3

_TenTen looked around her. She was in a grassy area, with nothing around to identify it as somewhere she knew. She heard a noise behind her and spun around, weapon scroll in hand. _

"_Oh, Shino, it's just you. What are you doing here?" she asked. He appeared not to hear her and walked forward. _

"_Shiiiiiiii-noooooooo", she called. He still didn't hear. This was beginning to tick the kunoichi off._

"_Shino! Hello! I am here! Talk to me!" she yelled. Shino stopped moving and turned to face her. But somehow TenTen knew that he wasn't looking at her. It was then that she realized that she was dreaming, and that she had no control over what she did. She was entirely in the power of those cold, invisible hands that control what exists in your dreams. As she grasped this concept, the controlling hands grabbed her and turned her around. She drew in her breath. The person in front of her was Neji. And never before had he looked like he did now. His clothes were covered in blood. His eyes had a wild look in them, and it was obvious that he was not himself._

"_Neji?" TenTen asked, bewildered. The weapon mistress suspected that speaking would be in vain. She was proven right as Neji spoke._

"_Shino," he said. "Today is the day you die." Shino looked surprised._

"_Why, Neji? We have never been friends, but we have always been together as part of the Konoha Twelve. Why must you kill me?"_

"_TenTen." said Neji. TenTen stared at him. He had never expressed an interest in her before, so why now?_

"_Explain." said Shino, in his usual direct, mysterious way._

"_You love her." TenTen gasped at this, but listened as Neji continued, "But you don't know her. She hates you. She told me to kill you."_

"_No!" Shino yelled. "It isn't true! She would never do that!" TenTen noticed tears beginning to drip from his eyes._

"_Oh, but it is true. And now, we fight." Neji got into his Hyuuga fighting stance. Shino released his bugs, but before he could do anything, Neji was upon him. TenTen watched as he blocked all of Shino's tenketsu. As the hands that controlled her were holding her back, she was unable to do anything but scream. Shino's screams of pain drowned out all the other sounds in TenTen's dream. They rang in her ears, like neverending bells of doom and despair._

"_No!" she screeched. "Stop! Neji, stop it! No!" But it was to no avail. Neji kept hitting the now defenseless Shino. The Hyuuga finally walked away after what seemed an eternity, leaving Shino's prostrate form lying in the field, TenTen sobbing over it._

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TenTen sat bolt upright, her heart racing. She looked around her to find that she was in her bed, having just woken up. She touched her face and felt tears, leftover from her horrible dream, dripping off her chin.

"Why?" she whispered to herself. "Now I'll never see him the same way again!" Still muttering to herself, she wiped the tears off her face and forced herself to get out of bed. She walked toward her closet to change out of her pajamas.

She looked at the clothes she was now wearing and shuddered at how much they looked like Neji's. Looking at what she had in her closet, she decided that from now on, her uniform would be a simple olive green shirt, short blue jeans, and ninja sandals. Putting this on, she added her usual scroll and weapons.

"_Hmm_," she thought, looking in her mirror, "_I think I'm forgetting something._" She allowed her thoughts to wander in the hopes if remembering whatever it was. Eventually her thoughts turned from the dream, to the previous day, to the first time Shino had helped her through her troubles. She smiled as she recalled how Shino had said that her hair looked better down.

"That's it!" she yelled, a bit louder than she had intended. Quickly she reached up and removed the ties that kept her hair in buns. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, and was amazed at how extremely different she looked. Just then, somebody knocked on her apartment door.

"Coming!" she yelled as she ran through her sparsely furnished living room to the door.

"Oh, hi Shino!" she said as she opened the door and saw who was behind it. "What's up?" She noticed him smile a bit at her enthusiastic greeting.

"Hey TenTen. And what's up is that Tsunade asked me to bring you to her office." Shino smirked. "What have you done now?" he asked sarcastically.

TenTen was a little surprised at his joke. "Nothing that I know of..." she murmured.

"Hey, take it easy. I was just joking." Shino sounded concerned. Could he possibly think she thought he was serious?

She tried really hard not to laugh. "I know you were." she said to him. "Come on, let's go."

They walked to Tsunade's office together, talking and joking. When they had finally made it there, they walked in to see Neji talking to Tsunade with an angry look on his face.

"_There_ you are. I was beginning to wonder." Tsunade banged her fist on the desk, causing it to crack slightly more than it had already been cracked. "When I call you to my office, I expect that you will be here within a reasonable amount of time. Do you understand me?"

TenTen bowed her head. "Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"Good. Now for the reason why I brought the three of you here. Gai tells me that the three of you were having some...disagreements last time he saw you. It causes tension in the village when shinobi are fighting amongst themselves." TenTen braced herself for what was coming next. She knew it could not possibly be good.

"You three will go on a mission to the Hidden Village of Mist. You must guard a sacred cow from enemy attack." All three ninja sweatdropped.

"A...cow?" TenTen asked incredulously.

"Yep. A very special cow. You will be there for a month, starting immediately. Oh, and one last thing." All three ninjas looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"What?" they all asked at once.

"Don't kill each other or the cow."

Neji walked away from her. He stopped before he left the room and asked, without turning around, "Who will be the leader of this team?" TenTen knew that the selfish bastard was hoping he himself would be named leader, just to spite her.

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that!" the Hokage said cheerily. "The leader will be TenTen."

"WHAT!" Neji shrieked. Everyone in the room covered their ears. Then they all burst out laughing as they saw the color Neji's face had turned (Think of the color it turned when Neji ate the Curry of Life. Yeah, that color.).

Neji glared furiously and waited for everyone to calm down. Then he asked what he'd been meaning to - "Why TenTen? She's so...weak!" He looked like he was about to say more, but TenTen cut him off.

"Weak? WEAK? What makes you think that, hm?"

"You've never beaten me in a fight. If you were strong, you could." Neji stated simply.

"Have you ever considered the possibility that I don't use my full power when I fight you?

"Well why wouldn't you?"

"Because it would kill you if I did." This last was spoken softly. TenTen had never wanted Neji to know about her secret jutsu, the jutsu she had made for herself. She had always known that it would be easier to deal with Neji if he thought he could defeat her whenever they fought.

Neji scoffed at what he apparently thought was a bluff. "I'd like to see you try."

Here Tsunade cut in. "Neji, she's right. She could kill you if she tried." Noting TenTen's surprised expression, she added, "I've seen you practice at night."

"But...how...how did you find out that I practice at night?" TenTen demanded angrily.

"I heard a report about strange occurrences near that area, and I went to check it out. Don't look so upset. I'm proud of what you can do." said Tsunade, soothing TenTen's worries.

"Arigatou, Tsunade-sama."

"Now, about that mission..."

"Right." TenTen picked up her cue. "Everyone go and pack and meet me by the gate in an hour."

"Hai." Shino and Neji left the room. TenTen didn't want to waste any time, so she simply used a teleportation jutsu she picked up from Kakashi.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Shino finally arrived at the Konoha gate and was surprised to see that nobody else was there yet. He leaned against the wall. Just moments later TenTen arrived. Shino stood up when he saw her.

"Hey TenTen!" he called. She noticed him and changed her direction so that she was walking directly to him.

"Hey, Shino!" she said when she got to his side. They stood next to each other for a while, not speaking. Then Shino asked the question that he had been wondering about ever since TenTen and Tsunade had talked about that fact that TenTen could beat Neji if she tried.

"Hey, TenTen? How is it that you can beat Neji?" He was shocked when she shot him a death glare. She was good at giving those.

"What did you say?" she asked, her voice dangerous.

"Oh, no, you misinterpreted my question. I don't think you're weak or anything. I'm just curious, since you specialize in weapons and those are useless against Neji's Kaiten."

TenTen looked embarrassed. "Well, I've never told anyone about this before, but since Tsunade seems to know...and you're going on a mission with me...so you may as well learn my strengths..." her voice trailed off.

"Go on," Shino encouraged her.

"Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell Neji about it." In response to his questioning look, she said simply, "What? I want to fight Neji someday for real, and if he learns my secret jutsu, then I will have no advantage."

Shino sighed. "Alright, I won't tell him. Now tell me." TenTen looked around, obviously making sure Neji wasn't near, and stepped closer to Shino before she began.

"Alright. It's my own secret jutsu. I call it Kisuken. It's a blade of...well, light...that appears from my fingers when I call it. It can appear three different ways, depending on the signs I use, and it is extremely powerful. It can cut through chakra, even spinning chakra like Neji's Kaiten, and also through just about anything else. It could kill anyone it touches. I would prefer not to use it unless I have to. It takes a lot of chakra and, like I said, it's deadly. But I think I have mastered it, so I can use it a lot without running out of chakra." TenTen explained. Shino was astounded. But he was wondering about one thing.

"Kisuken? Kiss Blade?" he asked, his amusement clear in his voice.

TenTen blushed. "Yes. I named it that because of how I summon it...and because of what I thought of when creating it."

"How do you summon it? Demonstrate, please." Shino looked at her expectantly. TenTen didn't use words to respond. Instead, she performed some handseals and put her index and middle fingers together as if she were pretending she had a gun. Then she kissed her fingers and pointed them at the ground.

Instantly a beam of white, pulsating light shot out from her fingers. It was shaped like a long, thin sword, and it lengthened and shortened when TenTen willed it to. As she moved it, it wrote her name on the ground. Shino noticed that even though the beam barely touched the ground, the marks it made were very deep. As a finishing touch, TenTen pointed the beam at a nearby tree, lengthened it so that it went through, and with one swift motion felled it.

"Wow." was the only sound Shino could utter as TenTen, barely out of breath, finished and deactivated the jutsu.

"Well, what do you think?"

"I...I don't even know what to say. I...I mean...it...it's so powerful!" Shino stuttered. He must've picked that up from Hinata.

"Stand back," said TenTen.

"Huh?" Shino was confused. However, he did as she asked. TenTen made some more handseals and released a blast of wind from her mouth, effectively erasing her name from the ground. Now Shino was even more amazed.

"Where did you learn to do that?" he asked, admiring her handiwork.

"Oh, I got Temari to teach me some things about wind." TenTen shrugged. "I figured that Tsunade wouldn't want me to destroy her training grounds, so I needed something to erase my tracks."

Shino had only one more question. "What are the other two ways the Kisuken can appear? You said there were three."

TenTen smiled. "That is for me to know and you to find out." Shino wondered why she was being like this until he sensed Neji's presence steadily coming closer. As Neji arrived, late, TenTen turned without a word and led the team she was leading out the gates of Konoha.


	4. Dreams

Ika: Sorry it took me forever to update! This chapter is a little strange. Bear with it please; hopefully the next one will be better...

And reasons for some random things in this story will be revealed in this chapter.

_Dreams or thoughts_

Real life

Chapter 4

_The team was making good progress. So far, they had covered about half the distance to Mist without any trouble. TenTen sighed._

"_I wonder how much further we can go without having to fight," she thought._

"_Well, hello there!" said a random enemy ninja. TenTen and her team turned around to see the ninja at the head of a team of what looked to be twenty others._

"_Who are you and what do you want?" TenTen asked with a snarl._

"_I, my dear, am the world-famous Oroka Hakuchi!" The ninja, who was blonde and had bright green eyes but was really ugly and dumb, gave a strikingly Gai-like smile._

"_Get lost or we'll kill you." TenTen said._

"_My, my, someone seems confident! We'll have to fix that, won't we, boys?" the random ninja said randomly, turning to the ninjas behind him. They laughed and nodded._

"_Stand back and cover me." TenTen said to her teammates, who were still in front of her. Shino nodded and stepped back, but Neji seemed ready to protest. He decided against it when he saw TenTen's glare._

"_Oh no! I'm so scared!" the obviously-lacking-in-mental-capacity idiot ninja said, mocking TenTen's glare. _

"_I warned you!" TenTen yelled, pulling out a kunai and throwing it faster than the eye can see. In less than a second the idiot ninja was dead._

"_Hey! You killed Hakuchi-sama!" one of the random follower ninjas yelled. He made some handseals and yelled "Katon..." but didn't get any further because of a shuriken thrown by TenTen._

"_That's not very nice!" someone in the group yelled._

_TenTen smirked. "Now is where the real fun begins." She made the same handseals she had when showing Shino her Kisuken, only this time she put her hands together as if to pray and kissed her thumbs. Beams of white light appeared from all of her fingers, and she simply had to move her hands to kill all of the enemy ninja at once. It was over before any of them could scream or say a word, and there was surprisingly little blood._

_TenTen turned to face her teammates. Neji was staring at her with wide eyes, his mouth agape. Shino seemed a little scared of her. She let the beams of light play in the air for a little while, then deactivated the jutsu. Shino visibly relaxed._

"_Now. Am I weak?" TenTen asked the Hyuuga, smirking evilly. Neji, looking terrified, shook his head no. "Good." TenTen chuckled._

"_Er...TenTen?" asked Shino._

"_Yes?"_

"_Wasn't that a little mean? We didn't even know who those ninjas were."_

_TenTen sweatdropped. "Um...well...their headbands had slashes through them, so I assumed they were missing-nins." She walked over to one of the dead ninjas and pointed to his headband. "See?"_

"_And your assumption was right!" Tsunade said, landing in front of her._

"_Wh...When did you get here?" TenTen yelled at her. Tsunade shrugged._

"_I've been following you this whole time with my chakra disguised. In case you were wondering, this was a test. Good job, TenTen. You are now a...jounin!" Tsunade said._

_TenTen looked at her oddly. "What, I don't even need to take the test or anything?" she asked in complete disbelief._

"_Nope! And as of now, your genin squads have been disbanded, so you are the leader of this new team! Hooray for team TenTen! Hooray!" Tsunade screamed hysterically._

"_Um...Tsunade? Are you okay? I think you've been hitting the sake a little too hard today..." TenTen said._

"_Wheeeeeeeee! I'm purple!" Tsunade screamed._

"_WTF?!?!," TenTen thought._

"TENTEN!" a voice yelled urgently in her ear. _She spun around, fuming. The sound was coming from one of the dead shinobi, who had come back alive and turned into a cat._

_TenTen stared at it. "What's wrong with you?" she asked._

"TenTen, wake up! It's your turn to keep watch!" TenTen opened her eyes to see Shino hovering over her.

"Ack!" she said, jumping up quickly and pulling out a kunai.

"Oh, it's just you." She sheathed the kunai and calmed down a bit.

"Are you ok?" Shino asked her.

"What? Yes, I'm fine. Perfectly fine." TenTen muttered. "_Of course I'm not fine, the only thing I truly want will never happen! Neji will never respect me!_"

"Are you sure? You have this weird look on your face." Shino sounded concerned.

TenTen put on an emotional mask before answering. "I'm fine. You should go sleep." Shino simply nodded and walked off to his tent.

"_Sheesh, does he really believe me? Wow._" TenTen thought as she jumped into a tree to keep watch. She sat there the rest of the night, thinking of various things, and never once falling asleep.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_Shino opened his eyes to see a beautiful forest. There were insects chirping everywhere. He couldn't see the sky for all the beautiful trees that stretched their limbs toward it. In front of him, there was a shaded pool fringed with moss, looking like a perfect breeding place for mosquitoes. Shino smiled. Mosquitoes wouldn't touch him, because they knew that if they did, his Chakra bugs would go after them._

_He took off the long-sleeved coat he always wore and sat with his back on a nearby tree, watching the insects dance in the air and skim across the water. Suddenly, someone appeared in front of him. _

"_Fight me." said TenTen. Shino looked up at her, surprised. Her eyes had a wild light in them, and he could see the faintest hint of her Kisuken dancing on her fingers. Her hair was down, and in the dim forest light it looked so dark brown it was almost black._

"_TenTen. We both already know you can best me any day. Why must we fight?" Shino asked._

"_We must fight. I must test the limits of my power. I will not hold back." TenTen spoke in a robotic tone._

"_Why, TenTen? Please, think. I don't want to hurt you."_

"_I have been hurt enough to know that physical pain is nothing."_

"_TenTen?" As Shino tried in vain to stop her, she charged at him, her Kisuken extending until it reached his neck. There was no way for Shino to keep her from holding it so close to his neck that it might kill him._

"_That was too easy!" TenTen snarled. "Fight me for real!"_

"_No! I won't hurt you. I love you!" Shino said desperately._

"_Love. What is love? Why must humans be so concerned with it? Love only brings pain." The weapon mistress's voice lowered to a whisper. "As you are about to find out." Her Kisuken pressed closer to his neck, and Shino gulped, knowing that death was inevitable..._

Shino woke and quickly sat up, sweat making his shirt stick to his skin. He felt nauseous at the thought of the murderous TenTen in his dream.

"_Is she really like that?_" he asked himself. "_Has she really been hurt so many times that she can't get close to anyone?_" He sighed, then added to himself, "_but, it was just a dream. Forget about it. It could have been about anyone._" Consoling himself with these thoughts, he lay back down and drifted off to sleep once more.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"_Neji!" A voice yelled in his general direction._

"_What?" he snapped, exhausted from his long hours of training._

"_Prepare to be punished." He had no time to react before he received a punch to the face._

"_That's for the first time you hurt me, when we were six years old. I bet you don't even remember. But I do." TenTen snarled in his face. Neji did remember. Oh, he remembered...how adorable her face was when she told him she thought he was cute, how he thought she was another stupid fangirl, how he had pushed her down into the dust and walked away. His memories were cut off as a kunai slammed into his leg, the sharp point almost connecting with his bone. Many more pounded into his back and arms._

"_Those are for all the times you came after me after you hurt me that first time. Every day, at 2:10 sharp, I would leave school, and you would come toss my books into the lake, or call me names. I couldn't do anything about it because I was just a little orphan girl with no last name, and you were the Great Hyuuga Prodigy." TenTen hissed and drove all her kunai in deeper. Then, she took them all out, covered them in salt, and put them back in again. Neji flinched and had to bite his lip to stop himself from screaming._

"_That's for all the emotionless glares you gave me, whenever I did anything to stop you. This salt in your wounds is nothing compared to those glares that haunted me in everything I did." TenTen smirked evilly and removed the kunai from Neji again._

"_Why, TenTen? I was just joking with you back then. You know that!" Neji screamed, unable to contain it any longer._

"_Why, Neji? That is what I asked myself every day when I went home. I would lie sobbing on my bed for hours, wondering what I had done to deserve the things you did to me." TenTen's face became emotionless. "This is what you have done to me every single day since I met you." She picked up a katana and stabbed him through the heart. Slowly, causing Neji almost unbearable pain, she drew it out again...and then plunged it back in. The hole it had left before was still visible, for she had chosen another place in his heart to stab._

"_Stop, TenTen. I can't take it." Neji said._

"_Stop? Really, now. Do you think I would? I asked you to stop, and what did you do? You pushed my face into a tree. I think maybe you would like to experience that too." Her actions mimicked her words. When she finally removed his face from the tree, it was bruised, scratched, and bleeding._

"_No more fangirls for you. You'll be as alone as I was, always the one left out, watching the others play without me." The weapon master's voice grew grim._

"_And now, I will remove what makes you think you are so much better than I am." She raised two kunai, already dripping with Neji's blood, and slammed them into his eyes._

_Neji's scream of anguish was entirely unheard._

Neji woke, covered in sweat, mentally screaming his head off. He saw the plain beige walls of his tent and relaxed a little bit. Wait...he saw? His hand reached toward his backpack and pulled out a mirror. Looking into it, he saw that his eyes were intact and had not, in fact, been stabbed by his teammate. The Hyuuga looked over the rest of himself and was shocked to find several deep cuts on his chest, near his heart.

"_Those certainly weren't there before..._" he thought. In his mind, he pictured TenTen's slashing, stabbing blade from his dream.

"When I hurt her...I hurt...myself?" he asked himself aloud, completely confused. There was no answer except a gentle rustling of leaves. Unable to go back to sleep, Neji got out of the tent, leaned on a tree, and watched TenTen keeping watch for the rest of the night.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ika: Seriously, people, I'm sorry it took me so long to update. School started, some other things happened, and I got LOADED with homework. I'll try to update more quickly next time.


	5. I'm so sorry!

An Author's Note

I am so sorry to do this to you people who have been reading, reviewing, and favoriting my story, but I am putting it on hiatus. Blame the evil thing called writer's block D 

Eventually, I will continue, but that won't be for a while.

Thanks y'all!

Ika


End file.
